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Rongsenla Mar and her collections at the Kisama on December 2. (EM Images)[/caption]
Kohima, Dec. 2 (EMN): There are many stalls at the Hornbill Festival in Kisama village that hosts ethnic jewelleries and accessories in all their varied shapes, size and colour. One of them is Mar Jewellery from Diampur. Rongsenla Mar, the woman behind the jewellery, is dedicated to preserving Naga tradition of ornamentation. This just might be the distinguishing aspect about her from the other lot.
A profound lover of culture and traditions, and village lives, Rongsenla Mar shared her jewelleries collections journey and her close bond to village life with Eastern Mirror.
"Whenever I travel to villages particularly in Konyak areas, I used to collect their traditional ornaments," she said. Out of all the traditional attires, Mar created a special bond with the Naga traditional jewelleries and accessories so as to "revive" the diminishing tradition.
It's been over 20 years she had been collecting jewelleries. Earlier, she usually buys the accesories wherever she goes especially in the village areas. But, it's been some years back, she began to produce her own kind of ornaments.
The 50 plus year old attributed her parents for teaching her to love the Naga culture so much. She went on to recall her memories of going to village frequently just to maintain a close connection with the village culture and traditions.
"Time spent in the village with close ones, old people, villagers is crucial because it will never come by and we learn so many things about culture," Mar said.
Although most entrepreneurs run stalls for profit, to Mar it's a different thing. "I don't do it for profit," she said and went on to add that she likes meeting new people and explaining to them about her jewellery collections.
Mar, who is also a member of the Museum Association of India said that "ethnography museum," a new initiative to showcase the Naga traditions and culture is on its way to launch, by next year.
"Our culture is dying and youngsters should take interest in reviving," she said.
She contently said that she is "much satisfied" with what she is doing and encourage the youngsters to keep trying hard to achieve their area of interest.
